Isabella
Isabella, labeled The Local, is a contestant on Total Drama Lakeside. She was placed on the Killer Wildcats team. Biography Isabella hails from an affluent suburb in eastern Ontario, and goes to a large research university nearby. She's always had great relationships with her family and friends, of which she has many due to having joined one of the most popular sororities on her campus. Her passion is biology, though she's always been proficient at other kinds of STEM, especially math - she's never been a fan of studying humanities, though, as she thinks it's "useless." During the week, she spends her time in bed, eating ice cream, either listening to modern mainstream hip-hop and posting on social media about how deep the lyrics are or watching 10 episodes straight of a Webflicks sitcom. She carries her phone with her wherever she goes, and often dramatically pauses her daily routine just so she can post a new photo "to the 'gram" - always heavily posed, edited, filtered, and made to look far more interesting than her life actually is for her 1,800 followers. She isn't used to having deep conversations with anyone in her life, as she and her friends mostly just talk about TV, fast food chains that they love, and makeup routines. Thus, when someone does open up to Isabella or show any vulnerability in any way, she's uncomfortable and distances herself from them because she prefers living life "casually." Isabella joined Total Drama because it had just gotten popular among her peers, and she thought she'd "slay" onscreen. Total Drama Lakeside Isabella was one of the first contestants to arrive to the competition. She sat next to Kelsey on the train ride, and spent most of the time taking selfies and complimenting Kelsey on various superficial aspects of her personality. She expressed her excitement at being on Total Drama, thinking the lakeside setting would have lots of "'gram potential." As more contestants arrived, Isabella tried to make conversation with them, but was usually shut down - especially by Whitney, who she was so upset by that she planned to tweet about her rudeness. Once Graham showed up, Isabella remarked that he was weird, and she was later placed on the Killer Wildcats team. Once the Wildcat girls moved in, Isabella attempted to bond with her teammates by organizing a group photo to be taken by Kingsley, and got very excited about her "girl gang." During the race portion of the challenge, she realized in the confessional she had a crush on Christian. Once the Awake-A-Thon started, she continued to try and socialize with her teammates, talking to them about boys and gushing over Erica's relationship. Soon after, Kelsey bared her soul to the others, which made Isabella uncomfortable. She gave Kelsey very shallow advice, then tried to change the subject by turning on a karaoke machine and loudly singing '70s pop, which scared the other girls away. An allegedly drunk Christian then staggered in and went upstairs with Isabella, where they tried to make out but walked in on Chris and Chef on accident, but then found an empty room. Right after the Wildcats lost, Isabella was upset about having to go to elimination and said she'd prefer to vote Chris off instead, or Graham or Miles. However, Isabella herself was voted off - and seemed disappointed by this. She told the other girls she'd never forget her "girl squad," then pulled everyone in for another selfie before she left. Once she was gone, Erica revealed in the confessional that she had targeted Isabella because she thought she was vapid and superficial, and was jealous of her relationship with Christian. Trivia *Isabella's original label was "The Normie." *Isabella was explicitly created to be the first boot. I wanted another female first boot since four of my five others were male, and I wanted to make her more than a one-joke character like Lizza. *The Isabella/Christian relationship wasn't thought of until right before I wrote her boot, but I figured their personalities complemented each other very well. *Isabella was inspired by certain Canadian students I hung out with while studying abroad. They were cheerful and friendly but very superficial, and they seemed to get uncomfortable whenever I brought up anything other than the most basic topics. *I hadn't meant for Isabella to be as likable as she was, but I started to unironically enjoy writing for her by the end. That combined with the positive reception she got from readers made me want to keep her in longer, but I felt her plot wouldn't have been as satisfying if she was anything but the first boot. *Isabella is also competing in Zac's Total Drama Eclipse as a newbie, taking place immediately after the finale of Lakeside. Gallery Isabella_Ec.png|Isabella's appearance in Total Drama Eclipse, courtesy of Wiz-Dan.